Assassin Kriegspiel

Assassin Kriegspiel is a variant of Kriegspiel. It was invented by Hubert
Philips, possibly around 1930. The rules below only tell the differences
with Kriegspiel: for the rules of Kriegspiel, see the description of Kriegspiel.
The game is a further modification of Welbeck
Kriegspiel, an earlier Kriegspiel variant of the same inventor.
(Thus, this game is a variant of a variant of a variant of chess.)

Rules

Similar to Kriegspiel, the game is played by two players, with help of a
third person: the referee.

At the start of the game, the players set their pieces secretly on the
first four rows of the board, i.e., white deploys his pieces on rows 1,
2, 3, and 4, and black deploys his pieces on rows 5, 6, 7, and 8. These
setups are shown to the referee. In this deployment, a player must put
his bishops on differently colored squares, but may place his pawns on
the first row. (Pawns on the first row make single step to the second
row from which they can doublestep.)

Then, the referee tells both players the position of the king of the
opponent.

After that, the game proceeds like kriegspiel, with the following
differences:

When a player mates the opponent with the queen (who is called
assassin in this game), then he wins the game.

When a player mates his opponent with a piece, different from the
queen (assassin), then he loses the game.

Knights are called spies. A knight cannot capture a piece,
and a knight does not give check. (So, when a player tries a capturing
move with a knight/spy, then the referee tells him this move is
illegal.) After a knight move, the referee tells the player the contents
of each of the (at most 8) adjacent squares. So, after white moves his
knight to a4, the referee tells him what pieces are on a3, a5, b3, b4,
and b5. The referee does this in such a way, that the opponent is not
aware of the fact that the other player made a knight move.

Knights/spies can be captured, but cannot capture themselves.

When both assassins are captured, the game is a draw.

The promotion rules for pawns are not clear. The last rule above seems
to indicate that pawns cannot promote to assassins/queens - such a rule
seems reasonable, given the additional importance to the queen piece in
this variant.
Information based on The
Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.
Written by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: September 8, 1997. Last modified: September 15, 1997.
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